Safe With Him
by the ramblin rose
Summary: Caryl, short. S2, Ep3 "Save the Last One". Carol tries to assure Dale that Andrea is perfectly safe as long as she's with Daryl.


**AN: This is in a series of "shorts" that I'm doing for entertainment value as I rewatch some episodes. Some of them are interpretations/rewrites of scenes that are in each episode. Some are scenes that never happened but could have in "imagination land". They aren't meant to be taken seriously and they aren't meant to be mind-blowing fic. They're just for entertainment value and allowing me to stretch my proverbial writing muscles. If you find any enjoyment in them at all, then I'm glad. If you don't, I apologize for wasting your time. They're "shorts" or "drabbles" or whatever you want to call them so I'm not worrying with how long they are. Some will be shorter, some will be longer.**

 **This one is partially from the show and partially of my own creation/embellishment.**

 **I own nothing from the Walking Dead.**

 **I hope that you enjoy! Let me know what you think!**

 **11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111**

Dale seemed as concerned about Andrea going into the woods as Carol felt about Sophia being out there, even if he hardly had any good reason for such intense worry.

He was practically keeping a hand on Andrea at all times, despite the fact that she was a grown woman and seemed more than capable of taking care of herself. In some ways, Carol understood his concern. It was obvious that he cared deeply for Andrea and he wasn't sure that she wouldn't try to kill herself since she'd seemed so ready to die at the CDC. He wasn't sure that she was mentally stable enough to handle everything happening around her.

Carol wasn't sure that, emotionally, many of them were able to handle this world. Even Dale's concern for Andrea could raise some psychological red flags if anyone was paying close attention.

One thing was certain, if you _could_ be broken, this would be the world that was prepared to do the job.

Carol didn't feel like Andrea was a threat to anyone. She didn't think, either, that the woman was really a threat to herself. She'd wanted to stay at the CDC, the same as Jacqui, but she didn't exactly seem to want to die otherwise. She'd wanted the death that was offered to her there, not just any death at all. They weren't really having to chase after her to stop her from committing suicide at every possible turn. She was just getting by, and maybe that's all any of them were really doing.

Carol watched Dale pacing, staring out in the direction that the two of them had gone, and finally she decided to offer the man some words of reassurance for the sanity of the both of them in Daryl and Andrea's absence.

"You don't need to worry. She's with Daryl. If something happens, he can protect her. You hear what I'm saying?" Carol offered.

Daryl was probably the most prepared of all of them for this world. He seemed almost made for it. If anyone had a chance to survive until they found some kind of Promised Land? It was Daryl. Carol wished, now, that he'd been the one to have followed Sophia down the embankment. She'd imagined, more than once, that instead of seeing him coming back empty-handed and asking if Sophia had made her way back alone, like Rick had done, Daryl would've reappeared with Sophia riding on his hip—shook up and tired but really no worse for the wear.

Daryl was capable of protecting himself. He was capable of protecting others. He would have taken care of Sophia and, if Andrea somehow fell short in ability and needed it, he'd be capable of taking care of her too.

"She'll be fine," Carol pressed, when she saw that her words didn't do much to calm Dale's pacing.

"You lost me at 'if something happens'," Dale responded. He gave up watching for a moment and came back toward Carol. She thought she might've gotten through to him, but then he took the gun off his shoulder. "Keep watch for a minute? I'm going to—just walk around."

Carol tried to refuse.

She wasn't even sure that she knew what she'd be keeping watch for at this point. She wasn't sure that she could do anything to alert them—especially since she didn't know where Daryl and Andrea were and would surely lose Dale as soon as he was gone from the roof of the RV—if she saw something they needed to avoid. She did know, though, that without a shadow of a doubt she couldn't use the gun. She'd have just as good a chance of killing one of them as she would of killing a Walker that she was aiming for.

"I don't know how to use that thing," she insisted as Dale pushed the gun at her.

"I won't be gone long," he said. "Just keep watch."

Finally, she took the gun, but it was only because she knew that Dale wasn't going to let her refuse. He was too desperate to get down there and see if he could catch a glimpse of Daryl and Andrea. Carol watched him as he worked his way down the R.V's ladder and then she warily eyed the gun that was now in her possession. She had no idea how to use it. She could kill herself as easily as anything else by accidentally setting it off or something of the like. Dale didn't realize the risk she was at on the roof with a firearm she was uncomfortable with. He didn't think about the risk he was taking wandering around in the dark. He was too worried about Andrea.

And Andrea, out in the woods in Daryl's company, was probably the safest of them all.


End file.
